Is Qi'ra Rey's Mom? 'Solo' Hints At A Strong Connection Between The Women

Major spoilers ahead for Solo: A Star Wars Story. It's Star Wars time again, folks, and with every new movie comes the endless speculation of who might be related to whom, who will turn to the Dark Side, and who will perish vs. who will survive. The new films also all bring out new characters fans grow to love, and Solo introduces Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra, a former flame of Han Solo's and a clever, bold woman. Her strength and bravery might remind you of another great Star Wars leading lady: Rey. Which raises the question: Is Qi'ra (pronounced "Kira") Rey's mom?

Now, I know what you're thinking: didn't The Last Jedi settle this? Didn't Kylo Ren tell Rey that her parents were nobodies, junkers who sold her for gambling and drinking money? "You have no place in this story," Ben Solo said to Rey. "You come from nothing. You are nothing." But we can't really trust what Kylo Ren says, can we? He could've been lying in order to lure her to his side. After all, Rey is super powerful, and Kylo needs an ally. And until we get an actual scene featuring Rey's parents, we can't rely on Kylo Ren's version of events. Which means, Rey's parentage is still up in the air.

Fans have already explored the possibilities that Leia is Rey's mom, which would make Rey and Ben half-siblings, or full siblings if Han was also her dad. And there's been speculation that Rogue One character Jyn Erso could be Rey's mother. Even other characters like Mon Mothma have been suggested as potentially having spawned the young female Jedi. Basically, if you're a woman in the Star Wars universe, fans are going to wonder if you're Rey's mom. And now that includes Qi'ra, who has some similarities to the Force Awakens heroine.

For one thing, Qi'ra and Rey have fairly identical personalities. They're both scrappy and resourceful orphans, and they're both survivors. Qi'ra endured years of abuse as an indentured servant, only to become a sort of involuntary female companion to major crime boss Dryden Vos. Rey grew up on her own on a desert planet, collected scrap metal for survival, and faced off against one of the most dangerous villains in the galaxy and won thanks to her intense strength with the force. So could they be mother and daughter?

One of the most convincing clues that Qi'ra and Rey might be related is the fact that, according to website Bounding Into Comics, Rey was originally named Kira. Though the two names are spelled differently, it seems like more than a coincidence that the name was revisited when Lucasfilm designed Qi'ra's character. And since Qi'ra survives at the end of Solo, there's plenty of time for her to to have a child in the future. And if she does become a big-time crime boss, as her alliance with Darth Maul would suggest is her intention, she might find that a kid just gets in the way of acquiring more power, which would result in Rey's abandonment on Jakku.

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But don't get your hopes up too quickly, Star Wars fans. The timing just really doesn't seem to work out. Using A New Hope as a timeline reference point, Solo is supposed to take place 11 to 14 years before the events of the first Star Wars film (which lines up with Harrison Ford's age in A New Hope). In Solo, Han and Qi'ra are supposed to be in their early 20s. The Force Awakens takes place 34 years after A New Hope, and in The Force Awakens, Rey is said to be about 19 years old. That would mean that Rey was born 15 years after A New Hope, and 26-29 years after Solo. Meaning Qi'ra would be about 48-51 years old when she had Rey. It's not totally impossible — maybe biology in that galaxy works differently than ours — but it's not likely.

So the search for Rey's mom and dad continues. Considering that there are a lot more Star Wars to come, there are going to be a number of possibilities for the movies to reveal the truth. And if not, perhaps Kylo Ren was right all along.